'Griffon' To Give Wing To New Busch Gardens' Ride?

JAMES CITY — The amusement park's parent company applies for a trademark for a new ride.

Is "Griffon" the name of the new ride in the works at Busch Gardens?

The amusement park's parent company applied this month for a trademark for the word "griffon." The service provided will be "entertainment in the nature of an amusement park ride," according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records.

Busch Gardens officials continue to say little about the new ride, which is set to open in late spring 2007 and replaces a family-friendly car ride called Le Mans Raceway.

"We're not announcing anything until the end of August," park spokeswoman Cindy Sarko said Monday, when asked about the ride's name. "I won't confirm anything today."

The park is teasing the new ride on its Web site with a graphic that features a bird's claw and words such as flight, menacing, immense, strength and vertical. A griffin, also spelled griffon, is a mythical animal that is part eagle and part lion.

Some fans of the park, which hasn't opened a new roller coaster since Apollo's Chariot in 1999, hope the new ride will be a coaster like SheiKra, a so-called "dive machine" that opened at the Busch Gardens in Florida last year.

Plans for the ride filed with James City County call for a height up to 50 feet higher than Alpengeist, which is a 195-foot-tall roller coaster. *